The invention is directed to a guardrail run along a roadway.
Guardrail runs of this type are known in the art and are disclosed, for example, in FR 2 811 344. They have a rail made of round timber sections which extends essentially parallel to the roadway, with the rail supported via spacers on posts anchored in the ground. The end faces of two consecutive round timber sections abut one another. The round timber sections have on their bottom side a vertical groove in which a steel band is arranged. The steel band protrudes lengthwise over the ends of the round timber section. In the installed state, the steel bands therefore overlap in the grooves at the respective ends. Studs extend through the round timber sections and the steel bands and optionally also the spacers, which are thereby coupled to one another, with the coupled steel bands forming a tension chord.
The guardrail run in the aforedescribed embodiment is specifically designed for roadways in rural areas, in particular wooded areas, in order to visually blend with the environment.
The connections between two round timber sections is relatively unstable and can therefore only produce a small resistance for heavy vehicles, such as mid-sized and full-sized passenger cars and trucks. It should be noted that the round timber sections can inevitably only have a certain maximum diameter so as not to disturb the desired visual appearance.
The conventional guardrail run is also disadvantageous with respect to its installation. The steel bands must overlap in the grooves. To this end, the free ends of the steel bands must be threaded into the respective adjacent end of a round timber section, which has proven to be extremely difficult in practical applications. In addition, the studs must be inserted through the round timber sections and the overlapping ends of the steel bands, before they can be attached to the spacers.
An attempt to remedy these disadvantages has been proposed in the prior filed utility model DE 20 2005 013 218 U1, which shows a guardrail run with metal bands that are coupled by locking plates. The locking plates are provided in the form of flat metal plates which contact one side of the metal bands. The locking plates can be easily inserted through slots provided in the round timber sections.